Pak Taliban claim responsibility for New York shootout

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud on Saturday claimed responsibility for a shooting incident at an immigration services office in



New York which claimed 14 lives.

The Pakistani Taliban commander claimed the attack was launched by a Pakistani man and another unidentified man.

"I accept responsibility. They were my men. I gave them orders in reaction to US drone attacks," Mehsud said by telephone from an undisclosed location.

The chief of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan warned that "such attacks would continue" to avenge missile strikes by US drones in tribal areas and "brutalities in Palestine."

Mehsud also pointed out that he had said a few days ago that his militants would carry out attacks on American soil.

The claim by the Pakistani Taliban commander came hours after a US drone attack in North Waziristan tribal agency killed 13 people, including women and children.

Authorities in New York said a man armed with two handguns killed 13 people at an immigration services centre before turning the gun on himself. The gunman was believed to be of Vietnamese-origin.

Mehsud had recently claimed responsibility for the terrorist siege of a police training centre at Manawan near Lahore that killed eight persons and injured over 90 as well as for two recent suicide attacks.